The Stationers' Company appears to have acted from a simple desire to give people that which would sell, whether astrological or not; and not from any peculiar tarn for prophecy inherent in the corporation. Thus even in 1624 they issued at the same time the usual predic tions in one almanac, and undisguised contempt of them in another, apparently to suit all tastes. The almanac of Ails tree, published in the above-mentioned year, calls the supposed influence of the moon upon different members of the body " heathenish," and dissuades from astro logy in the following lines, which make up in sense for their want of elegance and rhythm:— " Let every philomathy (i. e. mathematician) Leave lying Astrology, And write true Astronomy, And l'ie beare you company." In 1775 a blow was struck which demolished the legal monopoly. One Thomas Carnan, a bookseller, whose name deserves honourable remembrance, had some years before detected or pre sumed the illegality of the exclusive right, and invaded it accordingly. The cause came before the Court of Common Pleas in the year above mentioned, and was there decided against the Company. Lord North, in 1779, brought a bill into the House of Commons to renew and legalize the privilege, but, after an able argument by Erskine in favour of the public, the House rejected the ministerial project by a majority of 45. The ab surdity and even indecency of some of these productions were fully exposed by Erskine; but the defeated monopolists managed to regain the exclusive market by purchasing the works of their com petitors. The astrological and other pre dictions still continued; but it is some extenuation that the public, long used to predictions of the deaths of princes and fills of rain, refused to receive any alma nacs which did not contain their favourite absurdities. It is said (Baily, Further remarks on the defective state of the Nau tical Almanac, &c., p. 9) that the Sta tioners' Company once tried the experi ment of partially reconciling Francis Moore and common sense, by no greater step than omitting the column of the moon's influence on the parts of the hu man body, and that most of the copies were returned upon their hands. For more detail upon the contents of former almanacs, see the Companion to the Al manac for 1829, and also the London Magazine of December, 1828, and Journal of Education, No. V.
The British Almanac' was published by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge in 1828. Its success induced the Stationers' Company to believe that the public would no longer refuse a good almanac because it only predicted purely astronomical phenomena, and they ac cordingly published the Englishman's Almanac,' which is unexceptionable. Other almanacs have diminished the quantity and tone of their objectionable parts.
Of the professedly astronomical alma nacs the most important in England is the ' Nautical Almanac,' published by the Admiralty for the use both of astro nomers and seamen. This work was projected by Dr. Maskelyne, then Astro nomer Royal, and first appeared in 1767. The employment of lunar distances in finding the longitude, of the efficacy of which method Maskelyne had satisfied himself in a voyage to St. Helena, re
quired new tables, which should give the distances of the moon from the sun and principal fixed stars, for intervals of a fiiw hours at most. By the zeal of Dr. Maskelyne, aided by the government, the project was carried into effect, and it continued under his superintendence for forty-eight years. During this time it 7 eceived the highest encomiums from all foreign authorities, for which see the French Encyckpadie, art. Almanach,' and the Histories of Moutucla and De lambre. From 1774 to 1789 the French Connoissance des Tems' borrowed its lunar distances from the English almanac. On the death of Maskelyne it did not continue to improve, and, without abso lutely falling off, was inadequate to the wants either of seamen or astronomers. From the year 1820, various complaints were made of it in print. It was latterly stated that officers employed in surveys were obliged to have recourse to foreign almanacs for what could not be obtained in their own ; that Berlin, Coimbra, and even Milan were better provided with the helps of navigation ; and, finally, that the calculations were not made from the best and most improved tables. In con sequence of these complaints, which were almost universally allowed by astrono mers to contain a great deal of truth, the government, in 1830, requested the opinion of the Astronomical Society upon the sub ject, and the Report of the Committee appointed by that body, which may be found in the fourth volume of their Transactions, is a sufficient proof of the opinion of practical astronomers on the previous state of the work. The altera tions proposed by the Society were en tirely adopted by the government, and the first almanac containing them was that for 1834. The contents of the old • Nautical Almanac' may be found in the Companion to the Almanac for 1629. We subjoin a list of the principal altera tions and additions which appear in the new work :— 1. The substitution of mean for appa rent time throughout, the sun's right ascension and declination being given for both mean and apparent noon.
2. The addition of the mean time of transit of the first point of Aries, or the beginning of the sidereal day.
3. The moon's right ascension and de stination given for every hour, instead of every twelve hours. We must mention however that the intervals of twelve hours were diminished to three hours in the Nautical Almanac' for 1833, by Mr. Pond, the Astronomer Royal.
4. The distances of the moon from the planets for every three hours.
5. The time of contact of Jupiter's satel lites and their shadows with the planet.
6. Logarithms of the quantities which vary from day to day, used in the reduc tion of the fixed stars.
7. Lists of stars which come on the meridian nearly with the moon ; of occul tations of the planets and stars by the moon, visible at Greenwich.
8. The places of the old planets for every day at noon, instead of every tenth day ; and those of the four small planets for every fourth day, which were pre viously not mentioned at all.
9. The 60 stars, whose places were given for every ten days, are increased to 100.